ISP STAFF | July 23, 2024

The Ignatian Spirituality Project (ISP) Board of Directors has unanimously voted to welcome Dan Hartnett, SJ, Conor Heaton, and Bill Lipscomb each to a 3-year term beginning July 1, 2024. Read the bios below to get to know these outstanding leaders.

Fr. Dan Hartnett, SJ

A Chicago native, Dan Hartnett SJ joined the Society of Jesus in 1965 right after high school. Dan’s vocation was profoundly shaped by his formative years in Peru where he completed his philosophy and regency studies and where he returned to work as a Jesuit for the next 20+ years. He spent many years ministering in a large squatter settlement, El Agustino, and helped to co-found La Universidad Ruiz de Montoya, a small college in the capital city, Lima. 

In 1998, Dan returned to Chicago where he taught philosophy at Loyola University and served as Dean for the First Studies Program for the Jesuit scholastics. From 2009 to 2013 he was Pastor of Most Blessed Trinity Parish in Waukegan, IL, a predominantly Spanish-speaking community and one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He then served as pastor of Bellarmine Chapel on the campus of Xavier University from 2013 to 2018. 

Through his many missions and assignments, Dan has brought his passion for social justice, advocacy for the poor, and deep pastoral presence to all that he does and ISP is thrilled to welcome him to our Board. As Dan shares, “For me, the poor have always been a sacrament of God’s presence in the world. I believe that ISP embodies both the conviction of the grace that we all receive with the accompaniment of the poor who truly reveal the sacred in our world.”

Today, Dan lives at Loyola University Chicago, where he engages in a variety of ministries including as a co-chaplain of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, instructor for the Spanish lay deacons and their wives for the Chicago Archdiocese, and chaplain at Cook County Jail. 

Conor Heaton

Conor Heaton serves as the Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President of Growth of the Cristo Rey Network. In this role, he oversees all legal matters for the organization and leads growth strategy, guiding all pending feasibility studies and supports for schools in launch and the first years of operation. 

Prior to Cristo Rey, Conor practiced as a trial attorney in Chicago, where he was active in the Chicago Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and was recognized as a ”40 Under Forty” by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company as one of Illinois’s up-and-coming attorneys in 2015. He received the St. Robert Bellarmine Award in 2016 from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and, in 2014, founded and organized the Howlett Cup, a mock trial tournament between Chicago’s premier Catholic high schools. 

Conor was selected as a Pahara Institute Fellow in 2023, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Catholic Theological Union, Cristo Rey San Diego High School, Cristo Rey Miami High School, Cristo Rey Research Triangle High School, & Cristo Rey Orange County High School. 

According to Conor, “I am excited and deeply stirred by the special and preferential ministry of ISP, to seek and retreat with the most marginalized and vulnerable and share in the grace, love and renewal of the spirit!  I am truly humbled by the opportunity to support and participate in such a transformational mission.”  

Conor has spent his career leveraging his leadership skills and legal expertise at the service of others, and has a special passion for working on behalf of the underserved. ISP is delighted to welcome Conor to our team.

William (Bill) Lipscomb

Bill comes to ISP with an impressive background in law—and spirituality!

Bill served as prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee, WI from 1989 until his retirement in 2021. During his 35-year career, his work focused on issues related to gangs, drugs, and guns in impoverished communities. During this time, he served in several leadership positions including chairman of the Executive Board of the Milwaukee High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Deputy United States Attorney overseeing the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, and Narcotics Chief. At the end of his career, he served as the Smart on Crime Prosecutor, overseeing external relations with criminal justice and community-serving agencies involved in reentry work and coordinated responses to the opioid crisis. In addition, he served as an adjunct instructor in the Criminology and Law Studies Department at Marquette University from 2010 to 2022. 

In 2016, Bill joined the ISP Milwaukee men’s team where he served as a retreat leader for 4 years. It was during this time that he returned to school at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology (SHSST), earning an MA in Systematic Theology in 2019. In 2022, he received a certificate in spiritual direction from the Midwest Jesuits’ Seminars in Ignatian Formation program. Bill currently gives the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius at Gesu Parish and the Ignatian Spirituality Center of Milwaukee, teaches Social Ethics and guides lay graduate students at SHSST in discernment of call.

Bill shares that “I’m excited to join the ISP Board and staff in giving people in recovery the space and time to go deeper in their spiritual journeys. The work shows that we all struggle and we all find strength in a deeper relationship with God.  We really are one.”

We are blessed to have Bill back with ISP in this new role!